His personal best mark of 2.38 m (7 ft 9+1⁄2 in) ranks him among the top twenty high jumpers of all-time and at his peak his was the sixth best ever in the event.

[3] His first international success came at the 1986 European Athletics Championships, where he equalled his personal best in the high jump final to take the silver medal behind Soviet team mate Igor Paklin.

[4] The following year he was selected to represent the Soviet Union at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics but, after qualifying for the final he failed to register a height.

[3] In Banská Bystrica, Czechoslovakia, he had the best mark of his career in the form of a 2.38 m (7 ft 9+1⁄2 in) jump – an achievement which moved him up to joint sixth place on the all-time lists.

[11] He ranked within the top twenty high jumpers in 1991, having a season's best of 2.30 m. His form declined the following year, in which he jumped a best of 2.25 m (7 ft 4+1⁄2 in) at the Brothers Znamensky Memorial, and he retired from competition.